Giving In
by Kastia
Summary: What if the Chosen One wasn't just a girl? My twist on might-have-beens. Buffy Summers moves to Sunnydale because it is her destiny but destiny isn't always clear. I can't write summaries. BA
1. Chapter 1

Title: Giving In

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. They belong to their creators. And in addition to borrowing these people, I am also borrowing lines from certain episodes in Seasons 1 and 2 of BTVS.

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction. I would appreciate any and all reviews. I also have no idea where I'm going with this.

-Chapter 1-

He swept down the hallway, ignoring the stares that followed him, ignoring the impatient glares, and ignoring the fearful sidesteps that kept his pathway clear. He didn't really care. He just kept moving, his leather duster silently flowing behind him.

"Angel!"

He heard the shout but chose to ignore that too. He did not feel like talking. At all. To anyone. It's not like his friends could do anything. They didn't understand. How could they? It wasn't their responsibility. It wasn't their destiny. It was his. And he was not winning anymore. He couldn't even pretend he had a hope of ever winning. Reality was slowly sinking in. If it hadn't been for his pride, he'd have stayed at home curled up as the sun that kept him safe rose reminding him that one more day had passed and he was still stuck. But he was not one to hide. He would not give anyone the satisfaction of saying that he had given up.

And he had that stupid calculus test.

Entering homeroom, he gracefully dropped into his seat. Not as gracefully, he dropped his bag by his feet. There was thud, which echoed in the almost empty room. Not that he cared.

----

Ms. Calendar looked up from her desk to see one of her brightest- and most silent and sullen- students slump at his desk in back. A blink later and his two friends hurried in after him, with worried expressions, as usual. She sighed as she returned to the papers she was reading, it looked like today was going to be a normal day at Sunnydale High.

----

"Angel, man, couldn't you have waited up?' The hunched over form sitting at Angel's desk made no response. Charles Gunn considered poking his silent friend but quickly decided against it. It didn't take much thought to realize that the idea was dumb and even if Charles never claimed to be a genius he wasn't that stupid. Instead, he plopped down in the desk next to Angel and turned to the other guy who formed what the school knew as The Trio. "I don't think he wants to talk."

The platinum blonde ignored him too. He was busy digging through his leather jacket in search of his small notebook. He found it along with a carton of cigarettes, which he quickly shoved back into the coat. Without ever glancing at his friends, he started scribbling his latest creation.

Giving up Charles laid his head down on the desk to take a quick nap. He needed his sleep.

----

"Okay, everyone quiet down!" Unlike most teachers, Ms. Calendar's request was obeyed and the normal babble in the classroom faded away. "Thanks, if we keep this quick, we can get onto the lesson and I can..."

She and every student turned at the knock on the door. Principal Snyder escorted two girls into the classroom without waiting for a response. He glared at the students who were watching him before shoving a folder into Ms. Calendar's hands. "These are the two new students. Deal with them."

Ms. Calendar barely had a chance to secure her hold on the folder before the door slammed shut as he left. She turned to the two in front of her, noting that they could not appear more different if they tried. She smiled, remembering her earlier thought; today was going to be a very normal day. "Welcome to Sunnydale High."

The brunette barely glanced at her, instead focusing on her new classmates. Her dark eyes seemed to concentrate especially on the three of guys in the back corner. But the blonde smiled back, a shy smile appearing on her lips. "Thank you."

In the back corner, Angel heard the two words and glanced up.

"So, why don't you two tell us about yourselves." Ms. Calendar glanced at the folder briefly. "Which one is Elizabeth and which one is Faith?"

The two exchanged a glance, the blonde nervously, the brunette impatiently. Finally, the brunette rolled her eyes and answered. "I'm Faith, this is my twin Elizabeth, 'cept she goes by Buffy. We're from LA. We just moved here. Do you wanna complete biography or is that enough?"

Her voice was huskier than her twin's and contained much more of a challenge. She stared defiantly at Ms. Calendar, waiting for her response.

"That's enough, thank you, Faith. Why don't you two take a seat where there's a space and I can get started with today's lesson?" Ms Calendar replied easily. She was used to the attitude that some of these teens insisted on giving her and she was not one to give in to it.

Faith strolled down the rows of desks, casually sitting down next to Angel's blonde friend. He eyed her with a smirk before turning back to his notebook. She stretched her arms before taking off her leather jacket, displaying her tight fitting black tank top. She noticed that when he looked back again he didn't look away so quickly.

Following her sister, Buffy also moved towards an empty desk. She sat down near the side of the room, taking off her corduroy jacket without the display her sister had put on. She didn't notice a certain pair of dark brown eyes staring at her intensely. But someone else did.

----

"Did you see the new girls?" William "Spike" Windsor asked as he sat down with his lunch in the courtyard of Sunnydale High. "They were bloody gorgeous. And twins!"

"Yeah." Charles grinned at his friend. "Which one did you like best?"

"What's to decide? I want both." Spike pulled out a cigarette as he watched Charles poke at the brown glob on his tray. "What do you think that is?"

"It's supposed to be meat loaf, I think. Personally, I liked the little blonde. The brunette was a little too much." Charles grimaced as he started to eat his lunch. He looked over at Liam "Angel" O'Connor, his best friend for reasons he still did not understand. "But I'm guessing you've got dibs on the blonde, right?"

There was no response from his friend. Both Spike and Charles looked over at him. He was staring off at the distance, at the same spot Buffy and her twin was sitting at. The two exchanged a grin as they continued to eat there lunch.

----

"Well, what ya think?" Faith eyed her sister. "Me, I think there are some nice hotties here to be toyed with."

"That's nice." Buffy replied as she nibbled on her sandwich. She did not want to be here and the principal had made it clear that he didn't want her to be here either. No one understood why she'd done what she'd done. No one but her sister knew her reasons and Faith was not in a position to truly grasp the reason. "I don't like it that much."

"Wow!" Faith laughed, "That's a violent reaction to a place you haven't even been in a day. What's up with that?'

Her twin didn't answer right away. It was plenty of time for Faith to examine her sister. For all of their being twins, they looked nothing alike. People often had a hard time believing that the two were even related. Faith had wavy dark brown hair that she wore long while Buffy was a blonde and kept her hair shoulder length. Buffy had large green-gray eyes the shape of which was like Faith's dark brown eyes. But that was the only facial feature they had in common, for Faith had much harder features than Buffy's delicate facial features. Faith was also often perceived as the wild twin because of her rougher mannerisms and louder nature. Buffy was usually quieter and gentler. Still, Faith knew that this was a just defense of Buffy's and it was one that she was currently using to full force.

"It feels evil." Buffy's answer jolted Faith out of her contemplation of their differences. "I don't know why, but I know it does."

"Well, I guess that's why you're here then."

----

Two girls walked nervously over to where the twins were sitting. "Um, hi!"

Buffy and Faith both looked up at the soft drawl. They stared at the two girls in front of them.

"I'm Fred and this is Will," the stares from the twins became confused," Um...I'm Winifred but I go by Fred and this is Willow and I call her Will...sometimes...other times I just call her Willow. But...um...we just wanted to say hi and welcome you to Sunnydale."

She stood there nervously for a moment before glancing at Willow, who started to talk. "If you need any help or anything, we can help you. And we...I mean, because we know the school...we've been going here for a while, and I mean that doesn't mean we know everything about the school...but we know a lot."

"Thanks." Buffy interrupted with a smile. "We could probably use some help getting around."

"Yeah, yeah." Faith agreed loudly. "We could. I don't suppose ya'll could introduce us to those hunks sitting over at that table."

Fred and Willow glanced over in the direction she was pointing. Both turned around very quickly, Fred turning a bright red as she did so.

"Um, that's the Trio." Willow answered, as it was clear Fred was unable to. "The black guy is Charles, the blonde is William, and the dark-haired one is Liam. Only they go by Gunn, Spike, and Angel."

"Angel?" Faith drawled. "That doesn't quite fit in with Gunn and Spike."

The two girls shrugged. "He's always been called that."

"So what do you do around here for fun?' Buffy spoke up. She knew very well that it was a bad idea for her sister to start talking about guys. It tended to cause a negative first impression.

----

"So, this is the library." Willow pushed the brown door open, "It's where the books live. Lot's of them."

Buffy nodded as they entered the large room. It was a nice place with a lot of light. She liked light.

"Hello. May I help you?" The librarian exited his small office at the sound of the girls walking in. His British accent, as odd as it was in the southern Californian environment, fit quite well with the cool setting of the library.

"Actually, my sister and I need to get our books." Buffy spoke up, remembering that she and Faith still needed textbooks. "Um...I have my schedule around here somewhere."

The librarian made no response. Instead he bent down to pick up something under the desk, he glanced up again and then dropped what he was holding as he realized there were several girls staring at him. "Um, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that there were four of you present. Perhaps, Miss Summers, you could come by later."

The twins exchanged a glance. "First off, how do you know our name? And second, which Miss Summers do you wanna talk to?"

The librarian blinked again. "You have a twin sister? Well, no one informed me of that."

"What? I'll ask you again," Faith glared, "How do you know our name?"

"Well, frankly, I don't believe that is your business, unless you are Elizabeth Summers." The librarian took off his glasses and cleaned them. As he put them back down he looked back at what he had dropped. "Whichever one of you is Elizabeth Summers is the one I must speak to."

"Why do you wanna talk with my sister?" Faith continued to glare. "Trust me, anything you tell her, I'll find out about."

"Faith, it's okay." Buffy pulled her sister back gently, before glancing at the librarian. "So, you're the new one."

The librarian looked over at Willow and Fred, two of the handful of students who actually came into the library. "Yes, I am. My name is Rupert Giles."

"That's nice, Giles. But right now my sister and I need our books." It was the most forceful tone she'd used so far, causing both Fred and Willow to look at her oddly. "And later we'll come back and discuss whatever you want to talk about. And we'll both be there."

Buffy's eyes dared him to disagree with her. He didn't. Instead, he took the schedule she handed him and gathered the books for the twins.

----

The Trio walked down the hall side-by-side. Out of habit, students stepped away from, unaware that they did so anymore. Over the years, the students of Sunnydale had perfected their talent for not noticing what scared them. And the Trio was frightening.

Angel, always aware of what was around him, was surprisingly distracted today. Had it not been for the fact that the students stepped aside, he would have run into several of them. This was not unnoticed by Spike and Gunn. And they had a feeling they knew what was distracting him.

The deep brown eyes that half the female population of the school lusted after quickly darted towards a flash of gold. Like the hunter he was, Angel had spotted what he was searching for.

----

Buffy excused herself from the other three girls saying she needed to use the bathroom. It was a lie, one she knew her sister had seen through. What she needed wasn't going to be found anywhere. Instead she settled on getting a breath a fresh air. She pushed her way outside, apologizing as she bumped into someone.

There was a small courtyard with a broken fountain just outside. She wandered over to it and sat down. The setting was like a movie set with the sun shining down and students chatting as they strolled down but like she had told Faith there was a strong feeling of evil around her.

She hadn't wanted to move but her parents' divorce has coincided with her expulsion and her mother had always loved small towns. Both she and Faith would have preferred to stay in LA but their father had no desire to take care of two teenagers he hadn't ever really wanted. So, now they were stuck in Sunnydale. The only good thing about it was that it did seem to live up to its name and there was a lot of sun.

Angel stood in the shadows watching Buffy sit at the fountain. There was something about her, not just the fact she was beautiful, that made him curious about her. At the very least, it was enough that he knew he'd have to keep his eye on her, something that didn't bother him at all.

----

"I don't really like gym class, but I think it's a good class to have at the end of the day, don't you? And Ms. Wilcox is really very nice. I'm so glad you're in my gym class because normally I don't have anyone to talk to." Willow kept talking as she and Buffy headed towards the locker room. Buffy half listened trying her best to follow Willow's fast pace. As they turned the corner though, she stopped listening completely.

"Oh my God! Oh God! He just fell out of my locker. I don't know what to think. This is horrible!" A tall brunette who Willow had pointed out as Cordelia Chase, the queen of the school, was screeching hysterically outside of the locker room. "Why do horrible things always happen to me?"

A group of her followers had already circled her, offering her their support. Willow and Buffy stood at the edge of it wondering what was happening. Luckily for them, Cordelia didn't see any point in keeping it quiet. "Really, there should be a law that says dead people shouldn't be put in lockers. If people were smart enough to do that then I wouldn't be so upset today. Why me?"

Buffy tensed as she listened. This was not something she wanted to hear. Turning to Willow she asked, "Do you think we're going to have class?"

Stunned, Willow could only shake her head. How could her new friend be thinking about class at a time like this? Even she couldn't think of class.

"Oh, well...um...I'm just going to go in there quickly and put my gym clothes in my locker, okay?" Buffy watched as Willow nodded dumbly. "I guess I'll see you later."

"At the Bronze, right?" Willow ignored her slight stutter. "You said you and Faith might go."

"Yeah, I'll try to catch you at the Bronze. Where is it again?"

----

The locker room was quiet except for the soft dripping of water from one of the showers. Buffy ignored the sound. Instead she followed the sense of death filling the grey room. Towards the back of the room, she found the source of that feeling, a body lay on one of the benches between the lockers, a white sheet covering it. Buffy nervously pulled the sheet back so that the head and shoulders of the young male were revealed. Wincing, she turned the head slightly so she could see his neck. She pulled her hand away from the corpse quickly and yanked the sheet back over him but the image remained. Two red punctures in the side of his neck were exactly what she didn't want to see.

----

The library doors burst open as Buffy stormed in. "Hello? Hello? Is anyone here?"

At the sound of her shouts, the librarian stepped out of the stacks where he was shelving some books that had just been returned. "Yes."

Buffy stomped up the stairs to where he was standing; seething that he could be so calm. "You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy found in one of the lockers?"

"Yes. I did."

"Well, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little holes in his neck and all his blood's been drained. Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going, 'Oooh..."

"I was afraid of this." Giles looked down at the blonde glaring at him. She didn't seem to be worried about what had happened, just frustrated.

"Well, I wasn't! It's my first day. I was afraid that I'd be behind in all the classes, that I won't make any friends, that I'd have last month's hair, that I'd have all my classes with my twin. I didn't think there would be vampires on campus. I didn't want there to be vampires on campus."

Frowning slightly as he tried to follow what she was saying, Giles interrupted her, "Then why are you here?"

"Because isn't that what I'm supposed to do? Tell you what happens?" She rolled her eyes at him. "Which I've done, so I'm going, so bye."

"Will he rise again?" Giles asked her as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

'Who?" Buffy turned back annoyed that she hadn't been able to stomp out.

"The boy."

She rolled her eyes again, wondering if he knew anything. "No, he's just dead."

"Can you be sure?" He could tell she was still new at this.

"To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood and then you have to suck their blood, it's a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they'll just kill you."

"Oh." Well, at least she knew something. "And what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing!" She started to shout, but quickly lowered her voice. "I'm not going to do anything. Why should I?"

"Because you are the Slayer." He watched as her face went blank. There was no expression at all but he thought there was anger behind her eyes. "Into each generation, a Slayer is born. One person, in all the world, A Chosen One..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, okay? I'll look for the vampire that killed the dead guy." She turned around. "Sheesh, why can't you guys just leave me alone?"

She left the library before he could respond.

----

"Hey, B, can I borrow your blank tank top?" Faith pushed into her sister's room, where Buffy was currently glaring at the mirror holding up a pink flowery dress.

"Uh, sure." Buffy snorted in disgust as she shoved the dress back into her closet. "What's wrong with the one you've got on now?"

"I wanna different neckline. Your tank top has a lower cut, which is kinda what I'm looking for." She grinned as her sister rolled her eyes. "By the way, where'd you go this afternoon? Willow said you went to put some stuff away but when I went to find you, well first of all that rat of a principal we've got wouldn't let me in and then I couldn't find you?

"I went to the library." Buffy tossed the tank top to her sister before pulling out a light blue one for her self. "The librarian's my new Watcher."

"Oh." Faith sat up, eyeing her sister. "They're quick aren't they?"

"Yup."

----

Buffy and Faith pushed their way through the crowd in the small club. It seemed like the entire student body of Sunnydale High was trying to fit into the place. Faith nudged Buffy towards the counter, as she spoke, "I think I see Willow over there."

Willow was slowly stirring a cup of hot chocolate while she sat up at the bar. A headband held her long red hair back, but every few minutes she shoved it back into place. She glanced around dolefully; Fred hadn't been able to come so she was by herself.

The twins plopped themselves on either side of her, Buffy cheerfully greeting the girl. "Hi! Is someone sitting here?"

"No," Willow smiled softly at the two of them, glad for the company. "You can sit there."

"Thanks. So, what are you doing?" Buffy asked.

"Nothing much. I'm just sitting here. Fred's at home, she thinks she found a way to solve the problem Mr. Orlando gave us in calculus today, so she'd working on that. But I don't feel like working on it just yet, so I came here. And am I the most boring person you ever met?"

Laughing, Buffy shook here head. Faith on the other hand stood up and started to walk away, an action, which caused Willow's face to fall.

"Don't worry about her. It looks like she's on the prowl." Buffy watched her sister weave her way through the crowd to the blonde guy she'd sat next to that morning. "So how long have you and Fred know each other?"

----

Angel sat in the corner of the Bronze, waiting as usual for the familiar feel of evil to enter the building. While he waited he watched the one of the new girls sit at the bar talking with Willow Rosenberg.

----

Buffy laughed as she listened to Willow tell the stories about how she, Fred, Xander, and Jesse had all become friends. The four of them clearly had enjoyed each other's friendship for along time. The only person she had known for that long was Faith. At her last high school, she hadn't been worried about making close friends, just having as many as she could. That had meant they weren't the best of friends she could have had, just the ones who'd follow her around. It had felt good then, especially after her lonely experience in middle and elementary school, but it made her envious of the stories that Willow had to tell that showed the closeness of the group.

As Willow was telling the story of the time Xander had broken her yellow crayon, she felt something enter the Bronze. Clearly, vampires didn't care if she wanted to make friends or not. She turned to Willow apologetically, "I'm really sorry, but I just remembered something that I was supposed to do."

A hurt expression started to come over Willow's face, but Buffy quickly spoke up again, "But I'll see you tomorrow, right? 'Cuz I want to hear what you did to Xander after he broke your crayon and then I want permission to make fun of him for it."

"Really?' Willow couldn't help but smile at Buffy enthusiastic statement.

"Yeah. I just gotta tell Faith that I'm going. But I'll see you at school."

Quickly she moved to where she'd last seen her sister.

----

The source of that nasty feeling was moving towards the bar, where Buffy had just been sitting. Angel quietly stalked after it, noticing disappointedly that Buffy was no longer sitting next to Willow. Instead, the vampire sat where she had been a minute earlier, turning towards the red head eagerly.

Deciding to follow it rather than draw attention to himself in the club, Angel impatiently watched it talk Willow into going someplace with it.

----

Faith was calmly sitting on the lap of the blond guy, Pike or something; Buffy couldn't be bothered to remember his name. As soon as Faith saw her sister though, she stood up. "Hey what's up?"

"Nothing." Buffy quickly replied annoyed at the way the guy was looking at her. "I just remembered something I have to do."

"Do you need my help?" Faith asked softly knowing immediately what her sister was talking about. Buffy shook her head. "You sure?"

"Yeah, it's nothing I can't handle. Just, watch yourself when you go home okay? Don't invite him in." She glared at the guy, who smirked back.

"Don't worry, I know the drill. Be safe." Faith watched her sister turn around and move away. She could see the change that came over her sister as she went into what Faith referred to as Slayer mode.

----

Buffy knew as she turned from her sister that the vampire had left the Bronze. Now she just had to find where it had gone. As she exited the building she extended her senses, trying to pick up where the vampire had headed. Unfortunately, it seemed like a lot of vampires moved in and out of the club and it took her awhile to pick up the strongest and most recent trail. She followed it.

----

Angel scowl deepened as he watched the vampire put its arm around Willow and lead her into a cemetery. He could hear the thing mutter something about a "short cut" as it guided Willow through the tombstones. He was even more annoyed that Willow didn't seem to be doing anything to stop it. She was one of the smartest kids in their grade. He'd expected her to at least be aware that it was stupid to wander around at night.

Before him, the vampire stopped suddenly by an angel shaped monument. It looked around nervously as if reassuring its self that it and its prey were alone. Then it sneered down at the red headed girl, who had willingly come with it. As the vampire revealed its true face, Angel stepped forward. He was a moment too late' Willow had seen the demon behind the mask.

"Run," Angel snarled at the frozen girl. He didn't wait to see if she obeyed him as the vampire took advantage of his distraction and punched him hard. Angel flew several feet backwards at the vampire's strength. He quickly pushed himself up and quickly moved forward to kick the vampire.

At the sight of seeing Angel fighting that thing she had been with, Willow regained enough control of her body to run out of the cemetery.

----

Buffy shook her head as she read the sign on the gate she was about to pass through. "Sunnydale Cemetery," she muttered to herself, "I should have known it'd go someplace like this."

She started to move forward when someone came flying out of nowhere and ran straight into her. "Willow?"

"Buffy! Oh God! There...a thingy...with teeth...Angel...fighting...I...scary thing...yellow eyes...we have to call the police..." Willow stuttered as Buffy tried to figure out what she was saying. It didn't take long and she quickly stepped away from Willow to go into the cemetery.

"No, youcantgointhere." Willow blurted out. "Youcantleavemehere."

"Willow, I have. Okay, I know this is hard to understand, but I have to go in there now." Buffy ignored the further exclamations of the other girl and moved into the cemetery following the much stronger trail further.

----

Angel staggered backwards for a moment before quickly punching back towards the vampire. He smoothly jumped away from the demon's leg as it kicked towards his head. Pulling out a stake he feinted towards the right, before quickly moving to the left and jamming the stake into the undead creature. Dust fell from where the demon had been standing and Angel watched dazed, as soon there was nothing in front of him.

The kick from behind sent him flying forward.

----

Buffy followed the steps she sensed the vampire had taken. It didn't take long for her to find it. It stood next to a large angel shaped monument in the graveyard. She quietly crept behind it and kicked out.

Angel turned around to find the blonde twin girl glaring at him, clearly prepared to fight. He could see her tensing for another kick so he quickly came forward and punched her. There was a moment of guilt for punching a girl but her quick recovery doused it. No one could react that quickly unless they were a demon.

Darting out of reach of his punch, Buffy glared at the thing that had attacked her friend. She was slightly annoyed that she hadn't sensed he was a vampire earlier in the day. She paused a moment wondering how he got into the school during the day but a second punch from him which connected ended. Her frustration quickly returned. It would have made her life easier if she had sensed him earlier. She might have been able to kill him before he had killed the other boy, but no, he had to attend classes like any normal human.

It took a moment for Angel to remember that he'd seen her in the sunlight, a memory that caused him to pause for a moment. It was enough time for Buffy to knock him over with a strong side kick.

"Buffy, stop!" Willow screamed as Buffy pulled out something sharp looking and started to move towards Angel. "He helped save me."

Buffy shoved her knee into Angel's chest stopping him from moving, but didn't bring her stake any closer to his heart. His beating heart. Confused she stepped back, "What are you?"

Keeping an eye on her, Angel pushed himself up off the ground. The girl was a lot stronger than she looked.

"Well?" Buffy tapped crossed her arms, waiting impatiently for an answer.

Angel glared at her. "I'm the Slayer."

----

Once again, I would appreciate any comments on what I'm doing right or wrong. -Kastia 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Giving In

Disclaimer: There are no characters in this story that are mine. They belong to their creators who didn't do what I wanted. I can barely claim the plot b/c that's also not original. Besides borrowing/stealing these characters, I am once again blatantly borrowing/stealing lines from episodes of BTVS.

Author's Note: Thank you to people who reviewed. I now have some idea as to where I am going with this. Hopefully I will remember that idea.

-Chapter 2-

"You're the what?"

Angel winced at her scream. As the Slayer, his hearing was slightly better than most humans and the volume of her voice was a little grating. "I'm the Angel the Vampire Slayer."

"Let's start again. You're the who?"

Rolling his eyes, Angel repeated himself, "I'm the Slayer. Of Vampires. It's this weird sort of thing where into each generation a Slayer is born, one person in all the world..."

"The Chosen One, and you can't be that one because I am." Buffy glared at him.

"Impossible. There's only one." Angel argued, wondering whether or not she was crazy.

"Um, guys?" Willow stepped between the two nervously. Buffy still held her stake and both had unconsciously taken up fighting stances. "Is there anybody who can verify if you both are Slayers?"

"Yeah, my Watcher who will tell you that I'm the Slayer." Buffy replied quickly.

"Who's your Watcher?" Angel was asked mystified, wondering how there could be two Slayers.

"Giles, the school librarian." Buffy looked at him curiously. "Who's yours?"

----

"Well, it's not possible." Giles took off his glasses for the third time and cleaned them. Standing opposite him, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce mimicked his actions.

Annoyed at their respective Watchers, Buffy and Angel exchanged a frustrated glance. This had been going on for the last half hour, ever since Wesley had arrived at the library. Both Watchers seemed set on the fact that there could not be two Slayers and both Watchers were positive that they were the Watcher of the Slayer. No explanations had been offered to the just as perplexed Slayers sitting at the table.

"There's been an error." Wesley sighed, wondering which of his books might contain the proper material to research this problem. He paced in front of the oak table for a moment. "Somehow, another Slayer has been sent to Sunnydale."

Willow, sitting on the steps the library, raised her hand and waved it around for a moment. Giles frowned, wondering again why she was here, then pointed at her signaling that she could speak. "Is that even possible? I mean, two Slayers at the same time?"

She was still a little fuzzy on the details but according to that statement that each of them kept reciting, it was pretty clear that there was only one Chosen One.

"Not that I know of." Giles answered. "The new Slayer is only called after the previous Slayer has died..." He paused suddenly realizing the implications of his statement, "Unless one of you has died and somehow come back to life, I don't see how that's possible."

Sitting in the hard wooden chair, Angel started to squirm a little. He had a feeling that he knew what had happened. And it was a valid if uncomfortable explanation. Wesley looked at him stunned. "Good lord, Angel, you were dead."

"I was only out for a minute." Angel snapped defensively. This was what he needed, another reminder that he wasn't always up to his duty.

"Well, it obviously doesn't matter how long you were dead." Buffy said sarcastically.

"Look." Angel leaned towards her annoyed by her attitude. "I may have died..."

"She's right." Wesley interrupted what was clearly going to be a tirade from his charge. He stood in front of the table and looked sternly at his Slayer. "You were physically dead, causing the activation of the next Slayer."

"It doesn't matter!" Angel shouted. He took a deep breath before continuing. "It's a mistake. She isn't supposed to be here. She goes home. I'm not dead, I can still do my job, and I don't need her around."

But even as he spoke, he remembered what had happened only the night before. If someone else had been there... It didn't matter though. The Slayers before him had fought alone and so could he. The help he got from his friends didn't really count. And there was a very loud, if small, part of him that didn't want to see her in harms way.

"I can't just leave. My mother just moved here. What am I supposed to say? Hey, Mom, we don't need to stay here because I'm not needed as the Slayer." She shook her head at his stupidity.

"Will the two of you be quiet?" Both Watchers scolded in unison.

----

Buffy glanced out of the corner of her eye at the guy who was walking her home. "I'd be okay walking myself home, you know."

He didn't respond.

"Of course, I don't think it counts as walking me home if all I get is mute icicle."

"I'm not mute." Angel snapped. She was starting to get on his nerves and no matter how cute she was; he couldn't stand being annoyed for very long.

"Well, that's nice to know." She really was trying to not be so sarcastic but he was being difficult. "Are you an icicle?'

"At least I know the difference between a vampire and a living person." He muttered under his breath, perfectly aware that she would hear him and really not caring.

"Look, a vampire attacked my friend and when I got to where the vampire had been, you were there." She rolled her eyes again. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt my friend."

"Then why did you have her come back with you?" He asked incredulously.

"Um, hi? You guys, I'm still sort of here." Willow poked Buffy in the back, wishing that they'd acknowledge her existence, instead of just arguing with each other. It was obviously something they both enjoyed. "And she didn't let me come back with her. I just got scared and followed her. I didn't want to be left alone after finding that vampires are real. Would you?"

"I'm sorry, Willow." Buffy smiled apologetically at her friend. "I shouldn't have left you at the Bronze, if I'd been there the vamp wouldn't have come up to you. It's sort of my fault."

"It's okay." The red head smiled back. "I'm just glad that I have a super hero friend to keep me safe now. Wait 'til Fred and Xander hear about this."

As Angel rolled his eyes at her na•ve enthusiasm, Buffy winced slightly. "Um, Willow, you sort of can't tell anyone. See, this whole Slayer thing is kind of a secret."

"Oh. I can't even tell Fred?" She understood it was a secret but she never kept secrets from Fred. And this seemed really big; the kind of secret Fred could always tell when she was keeping them.

"No, not really." Buffy said softly, wondering if this was a good thing, after all from what she had heard, Willow and Fred didn't keep much from each other. Kind of like her and Faith, only she'd had enough trouble trying to keep Faith from telling everyone.

"Not even to keep her safe?"

"I'll keep an eye out for her, okay?" Something in Willow's eyes made it clear to Buffy that she was scared of losing her friend. It was another reminder of the strength of the friendship between the two girls.

----

They stopped by Willow's house first, making sure that she got home safely, before continuing to Buffy's house. Neither of the Slayers spoke to each other, both unable to think of anything to say that would be appropriate and wouldn't start another exchange of sarcastic remarks. But as they turned onto Revello Drive, Buffy decided to speak up. "Thanks."

Not expecting that from the blonde, Angel turned to look at her confused. "For what?"

"For saving Willow." Buffy answered honestly, silently continuing in her head, And for walking me home. Not that she'd ever tell the guy that. He didn't deserve it.

"I'm the Slayer, it's my duty." He answered. "And why are you so worried about her anyway, you've only known her one day."

"Yeah, but she's been really nice to me and I think she could be a really good friend to me and my sister." Buffy shrugged. "I like to have friends. Don't you?"

There was a moment of silence as Angel thought about how difficult having friends who knew who you were could be. Buffy waited a moment before speaking up again. "That wasn't supposed to be a stumper."

"I have friends." He snapped at her for what felt like the millionth time that day. "I just don't know if people like us should have friends."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy stopped walking and turned to look at him.

He shook his head unsure of how to answer. "It's dangerous. You get worried about them, that they might get hurt or that they'll want to help."

"Don't you think that having someone to worry about might make us that much better?" Buffy watched as his eyes darkened as he thought this over. She turned away from him, seeing her house just across the street. "That's my house. I'll see you tomorrow."

She didn't turn back as she quietly entered her new home, so she didn't see Angel standing across the street, watching her until she turned her light off to go to bed.

----

"So?"

"So what?" Picking up the glass of orange juice her mother placed in front of her, Buffy scowled. She did not like the little bits of pulp floating around in the cup. They were icky.

"How was your night last night?" Faith gulped down the glass of juice while her sister still eyed the pulp. "Just drink it, it's not going to kill you, right Mom?"

"Buffy, I'm sorry I got the carton with pulp in it. It was all that was left by the time I got to the store. The gallery is keeping me more busy than I expected." Joyce Summers was moving briskly around the kitchen trying to find something to eat for breakfast while her only daughters ate Lucky Charms out of the box. "And while we're at it, what time did you get in last night?"

"Um, right after Faith." Not as skilled at lying as her sister, Buffy could tell from her mother's glance that she didn't believe her. "And I had a good time last night. I really like Willow, she's nice."

"Well, I really like Spike." Faith smirked, remembering what she'd done with the blond boy. "And he's got some cute friends, Gunn and Angel."

"Spike, Gunn, and Angel?" Joyce turned around staring incredulously at her daughter. "What sort of names are those?"

"Said the mother of Buffy?" teased Faith. "And I don't know how they got them, it's just what they're called."

Joyce shook her head, "I named my daughter Elizabeth. It was her twin sister who couldn't pronounce that name who came up with Buffy."

"Hey! Buffy is still here. And I happen to like my name."

----

Buffy entered first period alone. She'd abandoned Faith quickly once they'd been dropped off at school, hoping to get some time to think before class started. The room wasn't empty though. The computer teacher, Ms. Calendar was sitting at her desk typing furiously on the computer. And Angel was slumped at the same desk he'd been in the day before. He didn't seem aware of anything going on around him, though Buffy knew that as the Slayer he was.

She sat down at the same desk she'd taken yesterday. Her first day at Sunnydale High already felt like it had been a long time ago. Not that anything special had happened over the course of twenty-four hours. No, just a dead guy in a locker, her new friend nearly killed, and the discovery that she had a destiny that was actually a mistake because somebody hadn't really stayed dead. Yeah, not a lot had happened. She leaned back remembering when life had been a lot simpler and tried to ignore the feeling that someone was staring at her.

----

He didn't mean to stare but it was odd seeing her. She looked so normal but she was a reminder of yet another one of his failures and his biggest one at that. He'd died and now she was here. Well, she was around before he had died but she certainly hadn't been the Slayer before that, just a potential one. Not that it mattered anymore because here she was in all her glory with the same miserable destiny he had. Life was unfair. Someone like her didn't deserve this. He watched her sit there, barely aware as other students entered the room wondering who she had been before.

----

"Where's Faith?" Xander asked around his mouthful of hot dog. Willow had dragged Buffy to where she usually met her friends for lunch but Buffy's twin was nowhere to be found.

Buffy shrugged at Xander's question. She didn't have any idea where Faith was except that she was somewhere around the school. Faith had come in late to first period, trailed by Angel's friend Spike, and after that Buffy hadn't seen her as they didn't share any other classed beside fifth period biology which was after lunch.

"So Willow said she spilled all the dirt about us to you last night." Jesse waved his spoon around before jabbing it in his green Jell-O. "Now, I only figure that you should give us something in exchange."

"Yeah, like what kind of funny stuff did you do when you were little?" Xander had thankfully swallowed. "Did you ever eat paste?"

Laughing at their eagerness, Buffy shook her head. "Nope, I think Faith did once though. I only ate paper, which was probably just as bad."

"Aw, did itty bitty Buffy eat wittle wads of waper when she was wittle?" Xander giggled as he teased the pretty blonde. He grinned as he saw her eyes light up at his tone.

"Yup, I did and I'm not ashamed." Buffy declared laughing. She was amazed at how easily the tight knit group of friends had accepted her. And they even welcomed her. "Of course, since I only ate paper instead of paper and paste, I don't think you should be making that much fun of me."

"You told her I ate paper and paste?" Xander whipped around to mock glare at Willow and Fred who were laughing hard at the entire scene. "I thought that was our deepest and most precious secret."

"I thought that was the fact that you only wore pink socks for a year." Fred giggled as Xander's jaw dropped and Buffy's eyes widened.

"Pink socks?" Buffy felt tears forming as she kept laughing. As she wiped her eyes a dark wind swept across the lawn they were all sitting on. Every muscle in her body tightening she glanced around but nothing seemed any different. The same students were still all sprawled about the front lawn of the school and the sun was still beating down on them. No one else seemed to have noticed anything.

"Earth to Buffy. Earth to Buffy." Jesse waved his Jell-O filled spoon in front of her face. "Are you there?"

"Yeah," she answered a slight frown on her face, "I have to go. I'll see you guys in class."

As the group watched her leave, Xander put their thoughts into words. "She's weird."

----

Angel watched as Faith entertained Gunn and Spike. She had the same sarcastic streak as her sister only her little comments tended to be a little cruder and a little less personal. He kept glancing across the courtyard in hope of seeing Buffy but she wasn't there. It bothered him that he was developing this desire to see her again. He couldn't afford to be so distracted.

"Earth to Angel. Earth to Angel." Faith laughed waving a hand wildly in front of the dark eyed boy's face. "You're worse than my sister at zoning out."

The three of them laughed even harder as Angel noticeably shook himself out of his thoughts at the mention of Faith's twin. He looked around the large courtyard again and went back to just watching his friends. He was glad that Faith easily reverted their attention back to her and her body as she writhed gracefully across the table as she told her stories. He didn't need his friends lecturing him on his lack of a life again. He just needed a break.

Faith watched Angel out of the corner of her eye as she excitedly told Spike and Gunn the story of when Buffy had gotten in a car accident. She had seen him and her sister last night. And she had seen him stare at the window she knew was Buffy's. But Buffy wasn't saying anything and he despite all of his apparent distraction wasn't saying much either. Taking a route atypical of her, she decided that she'd just keep watching and giving gentle nudges to push the two in the direction that they were obviously heading in.

"Blood hell. It's getting cold." Spike interrupted Faith as a blast of wind hit the group in the courtyard. It didn't last long but as a group the four of them shivered.

Sitting still for a moment, Angel fought the impulse to break something. As soon as he was able to he leapt up and walked back into the school building. Something felt wrong.

----

"Ok. What is going on now?" Buffy stomped back into the library. She couldn't see anybody in the large room again. "Hello?"

Startled, Giles dropped the book he was carrying off the shelves. Shaken he walked out from the stalls. "Hello. How are you?"

Buffy stared at him, incredulous he could be so polite when something bad was so obviously about to happen. "I'm great! Just great. There's this all evil-ly feeling on campus and you're asking how I feel. This is great. The world could end tomorrow and you'd ask if I wanted sugar in my tea."

"Are you sure you're okay?" The librarian frowned, confused at the ranting of the young girl standing in front of him glaring.

"I'm fine. The world isn't! Aren't you supposed to all watch-y and know what's going on?"

"Something's going on?"

At his unconcerned tone, Buffy groaned and flopped down into the nearest chair. "Yes! Why do you think I came here?"

Giles glanced down at the book he was holding before looking back at her. "Well, this is a school library and you are a student. There is a chance that you are here to get a book like you did yesterday. Which, might I add, was the same day you informed me you wanted nothing to do with being the Slayer."

"Oh, so now you know stuff." Buffy rolled her eyes at his statement. "That was yesterday. This is today. And today I've decided that I have to do something."

"You are aware that it isn't necessary. There is another Slayer." He reminded her calmly, unwilling to get worked up about this crisis she had yet to explain to him."

"I know that." Buffy dragged the sentence out for emphasis. "But that doesn't mean I can't do anything. And what are you doing here? Don't you know it's rude to listen to other people's private conversations? Oh, it's just you."

Angel stared at her oddly as he walked past the librarian to sit in the chair opposite her. "You know this is a school library right? Students can walk in at any time."

"Why does everyone keep telling me that? I see the books. I know it's a library. I have library guy for a watcher."

Ignoring the blonde's continued ranting, Giles turned to the other Slayer. "Why are you here?"

"I felt something odd outside." Angel explained. He shrugged, "I thought I should tell you about it since I can't exactly walk to where Wesley works without getting in trouble."

"What exactly was wrong?"

"You believe him but not me?" Buffy interjected before Angel could answer. "What's up with that?"

Both of them ignored her again. Angel just answered Giles. "There an evil feeling in the wind. With the Hellmouth here and all, I feel evil a lot but this was different. Stronger."

"In the wind?" Giles frowned trying to recall anything he'd heard of that would affect the wind. "Could you be more specific?"

"The wind felt evil?" Angel stared at Buffy's Watcher wondering how he could possibly be more precise about what he had felt.

"Oh." There was a lot of doubt in Giles' tone but he didn't press for more details. "I guess I shall have to research this further. Perhaps, while you two patrol, Wesley and I can look through our books."

----

"Do you think they're going to find anything?" Buffy asked as she and Angel walked through the graveyard. The moon was just bright enough to create a dull light on the tombstones making everything in the shadows appear even darker.

"I don't know."

"Well, how long do you think it will take them to find something?" The two reached a newly dug grave where the victim of a vampire had recently been buried. Buffy pushed herself up onto the tombstone to sit and wait for the fledgling to rise.

"I don't know."

"What do you think it was?"

"I don't know."

"Do you say anything else?" Buffy snapped out at Angel. "Sheesh, all you say is 'I don't know" or something with even less syllables. Would it hurt you to use a few more words when you talk?"

Angel stepped away to avoid being hit with the stake she was waving about to emphasize her point. He really was having a hard time right now accepting the fact that she was the Slayer. Nothing about her seemed even remotely intimidating. "I don't usually talk on patrol. And don't wave that thing around."

"Why not?" Buffy swung her stake about, coming close to hitting Angel's face. "Are you scared I'm going to hit you?"

"Not really. I just don't think we need questions about why you have a pointy stick."

"And who's going to be in the graveyard at night walking around to see me?"

"Well, this graveyard is the quickest short cut from the Bronze to the main part of town, in case you forgot why that vampire was taking your friend through it last night." Angel shook his head at how quickly she seemed to forget things. "And will you please stop swinging it around!"

"No." Buffy answered shortly, quickly bringing the stake up and then throwing past Angel's head right into the heart of the vampire that had snuck up on them while they had been talking. "But I will now."

Staring in disbelief at the dust settling at his feet, Angel groaned. He hadn't had any idea that there had been a vampire right behind him and he was the more experienced Slayer. "Thanks. I guess he was here to collect this guy."

Buffy nodded, calmly slipping into her Slayer sensibility. Her senses became more alert as she allowed herself to be taken over by the power within her. She stood up and went to stand by the edge of the grave. "He probably won't take too long to take out as long as no one else comes to have a big welcome party."

"Yeah." Angel stared at her, amazed at how she had changed. It wasn't obvious but he could tell she was more alert, more prepared than she'd been just a few moments before. He'd never been able to drop that alertness, something that made his days harder when he felt the creatures of the night lurking in the shadows.

They stood silently over the grave, waiting for the first hint of motion. It didn't take too long and soon a hand rose up out of the dirt, piercing through the newly laid grass. It groped around trying to take find leverage to drag the rest of the body up. Another hand joined it, the two creating a wider hole large enough for a head and body to follow, which they did. There was a short second of confusion on the part of all three present as the vampire became aware of the two Slayers and the Slayers were yet again forced to face a monster that few people believed existed. It didn't last long though.

The vampire quickly lashed out at Buffy who was closer, knocking her over with its demon strength. She fell backwards, quickly rolling aside as it came down to punch her in the face. Behind the vampire, Angel swiftly pulled out his stake and moved towards the vampire. Sensing the second Slayer behind him the vampire kicked out, barely missing Angel who darted to his left and moved forward bringing the stake down through the vampire's heart.

From where she lay on the grass, Buffy stared at the dust of her nightmares, wondering for a moment how this could have ended differently had Angel not been there.

----

It rapidly became a daily routine. Angel stared at Buffy during homeroom and she pretended not to notice. Buffy hung out with Willow, Fred, and their group, while Faith became the fourth member of the Trio. Angel and Buffy went out on patrol at night, argued, fought vampires, and tried not to let the other see anything resembling respect for the other. Meanwhile their Watchers would research any new monsters they ran across and continue to look for what could cause the wind to feel evil. Then Angel would walk Buffy home and watch her again as she got ready for bed and while she pretended to not notice him again.

After three weeks of this though, Buffy was beginning to get annoyed at Angel's obvious unwillingness to do anything but this and Faith had decided that something needed to happen. Being patient had never been her strong point.

----

"So, Angel, why don't you have a girlfriend or something?" Faith drawled during lunch one day from her very comfortable position on Spike's lap. She stared at the dark haired guy who was her friend and who watched her sister.

"Why do you ask that?' Angel turned to her calmly. He knew Buffy hadn't told her twin about his being the Slayer, much like he hadn't told his friends about the second Slayer. The only people who knew that both of them were Slayers were Willow and their Watchers. He wasn't sure why he hesitated in telling anyone else but he wasn't able to bring himself to do so.

"Because you're a good looking guy, surely someone wants to date you." Faith answered bluntly. She wasn't blind to the way other girls looked at him, even if the Trio was. All three of them were fairly handsome. However, until she had claimed Spike, it didn't seem like any of them had any serious girlfriends.

"Oh, don't worry about him." Spike laughed, knowing perfectly well why she wanted to know. "He's got plenty of gals lining up. But you see, he only dates blondes and I think he's taking a break from them right now after what happened with Darla."

"Darla?" Faith had no idea who Darla was since she hadn't been socializing with too many people around the school.

"Cordelia Chase's best friend, Darla. Darla's the blonde who's only half stupid. Harmony is the blonde who is completely stupid. And you can't tell me you don't know who Cordelia is." Spike poked her, "Remember, she's the one who told you to not breathe close to her."

"Yeah, I remember that bitch." She turned back to Angel. "So, what happened with Darla?"

Nobody answered. The truth was that Angel had missed several dates with Darla because of his Slayer duties. They'd gone out for a grand total of two months. She'd broken up with him at the junior Final Fling after he'd arrived late and rumpled because of a huge fight. That had been the year before. Angel didn't really feel like explaining this to Faith and his friends couldn't think of a way that wouldn't lead her to asking questions.

Luckily, Faith was quickly sidetracked as she remembered exactly who Darla was. "Hey, isn't Darla the one who is always glaring at Buffy?"

"Yeah, she is." Gunn grinned. "I guess she's worried about losing her title as the only girl at Sunnydale High who has ever gone out with Angel."

"I'm not going out with Buffy." Angel huffed. There was no way that he was going to date a Slayer. That kind of relationship just called for trouble.

And refusing that kind of relationship in front of the sister of the Slayer wasn't much safer he realized as Faith punched his shoulder. "Why not? Worried she'll beat you up?"

As Spike started laughing, Faith smacked him on the side of the head. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, luv, I just don't see Buffy beating up Angel any time soon." Both Spike and Gunn couldn't hold their laughter at the idea of seeing little blonde Buffy taking on Angel.

"Well, then why won't you go out with her?" Faith asked openly. "I don't see any reason you shouldn't."

"She's nice but," Angel paused, knowing perfectly well that this information would get back to Buffy, "I don't like her that way"  
Calmly staring at him, Faith smiled coldly, "Bullshit."

----

"Aha"  
The three other people in the library jumped at Giles' exclamation. Buffy dropped the book she was reading and glared at her Watcher. The librarian looked up from the large tome he had been reading to three angry expressions. Perplexed, he decided that his discovery was more important.

"And in the dark of the day when all are out the sweeper will come over all and all will not stand alone. Messages of clouds will flow down to all as darkness rises with the light. And on this after day all will fight for the sun against darkness' light."

"That's it!" Wesley exclaimed, causing the two Slayers to jump again. "That's what we've been looking for!"

Bending down to pick up her biology book, Buffy looked at Angel who was, she was relived to see, wearing a confused expression. "What's that? It's all cryptic and stuff."

"It's the explanation of what that wind was that you two brought up two months ago. It tells us what it is and now we'll be able to prepare better." Giles turned back to the book. He read a little more before speaking again. "Oh dear, I don't quite understand this part. I think we'll have to research this a lot more before we can completely grasp the situation at hand."

"What don't you understand? And could you try explaining that a little better because I don't think that little cryptic note you read us even mentioned the wind. Or evil. Or anything that resembles what we felt."

Giles looked at the blonde who was glaring at him with her large eyes. The annoyance was plain in her green-gray eyes and he could see anger hiding behind that.

"What it's saying is that..."

The doors of the library flew open as Willow, Fred, Xander, and Jesse burst in.

"Vampires!" Willow screamed.

Buffy and Angel leapt up as their four classmates scrambled into the library. Buffy noticed briefly that Jesse was bleeding from the neck before the vampires attracted her attention. There were eight of them, all fledglings but clearly prepared to fight. Without hesitation she and Angel moved forward to meet them.

"Slayer." The leader of the group hissed staring creepily at Angel, his yellow eyes focusing on the male Slayer. "My Master wishes to give you his greetings and tells you to be prepared to spend some time in Hell."

Buffy glanced at Angel, whose face became mask-like in its blankness. It was the scariest thing she had ever seen. She looked back at the vampire who was smirking in his demonic form.

The demon looked at her and grinned evilly. "I think I'll start making your life hell by killing her first."

It was the only warning the two Slayers got before the thirteen vampires attacked.

----

Any reviews at all are greatly appreciated. Again, I have an idea of where I'm going with this- it just may take me a while to get there.  
-Kastia 


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Giving In

Disclaimer: Still not mine. Never will be mine. I am just borrowing ideas, characters, blah, blah, blah.

Author's Note: Thanks to people who reviewed. I like people who reviewed. Please keep doing so.

-Chapter 3-

"I don't want to talk about it." Angel whispered as Buffy wrapped the bandage around his side. His Slayer healing abilities had already started working but there was still blood coming from his wound. She'd been lucky and had gotten through the fight with only several bruises and a few strained muscles.

The two of them were in Giles' office while the Watchers explained what had happened to the four others. Through the glass window, Buffy could see the horror on Fred's face, and the worry on Xander's. She hadn't meant to bring them into this. Suddenly remembering that Angel had spoken her, she turned back to him. "Maybe you should talk about it. That might keep you from getting stabbed in the gut next time."

He looked at her, clearly not amused. "It's not something I want to talk about."

"Does it have to do with how you died?" Buffy looked up at his dark brown eyes wondering whether he'd finally tell her about that.

"No." Angel closed his eyes, unable to look at her innocent face while remembering that night. "I killed that vampire after I was revived."

"So, this is a different vampire." She taped the bandage tightly. "I think that'll stay."

"Thanks." He moved a little testing to se if the bandage held. "I'm not scared of this vampire."

"It didn't look that way."

"I'm scared of what he can do." Angel stared through the window at the four seated out there. "He's ruthless, this Master. He doesn't care about anything but getting his way. He'll kill his own minions if necessary. He doesn't need them. He just likes having them around to mess with."

"You know a lot about him." Buffy watched him as he shrugged his shirt back over his broad shoulders. The Slayer in him made even a simple act like that incredibly graceful. She bit her lip at just how good he looked buttoning up his shirt.

"He killed my parents even before I became a Slayer. I was left on my own." He looked at her, knowing that she would understand. "He knew what I was going to be and he killed the people I loved because of it."

She touched him gently, trying to convey her sympathy without pity. "I'm so sorry."

He ignored her words but didn't move away from her touch. "I was lucky, Spike's mom was willing to take me in. I've been living with them ever since then."

He swallowed, remembering again what had happened the evening before he had first met her. That had been an even scarier night than the one where he had died. "I thought he was dead but a month or so ago, he came back."

Buffy's eyes widened as the horror of his words hit her. The vampire that had killed Angel's parents was out there, obviously hunting him down still. And now he would know there was a second Slayer.

Angel turned away from the window. He looked at her and saw her expression but realized despite his words he had to tell her everything. "I met him again the night before you started school. He killed someone in front of me...again. If I'd been faster I could have saved her. I could have stopped him, but I couldn't. I'm not strong enough. Someone else died because of me and the fact that I'm the Slayer."

"We can't stop every vampire, Angel." Buffy whispered, unsure if she had any right to speak to him about something like this. "We can't doubt ourselves either. The moment we do, it's all over. But right now, we do have friends who we can and must protect because they are our friends. If for nothing else, we have to keep fighting for them."

Angel dolefully looked at her and smiled slightly. "That's what's amazing about you. You connect to people and enjoy your time with them so much. You so obviously love life, it's amazing. I just wish I thought there was as much to fight for as you do."

"Trust me, you do." Buffy smiled back. "Why else would you still be here fighting?"

-

Buffy clutched her brown bag nervously as she walked across the courtyard. It had been two days since she'd spoken to Angel after the attack. Neither of them had been able to patrol for the past few nights and he'd been avoiding her but now she felt it was necessary for them to talk.

"Looks like somebody's going to join us." Spike drawled lazily as he watched Buffy slowly make her way across the courtyard.

Gunn, Angel, and Faith all looked in the direction he was staring. Angel quickly whipped his head back around to glare at Spike. "What does she think she's doing?"

"Joining us for lunch?" Spike raised a dark brown eyebrow, his blue eyes staring amusedly at his closest friend. It wasn't often that he had an opportunity to tease Angel and he was going to take full advantage of the situation. "Why? Are you scared of her?"

There wasn't any chance for Angel to respond as Buffy came up to the group at that moment. Tilting her head, she frowned slightly as she looked at Spike. "Who is he afraid of?"

"You, luv." Spike grinned as Angel dropped his head to the table. "Don't know why though. Pretty little bit like you shouldn't scare the mighty ole Angel."

Buffy ignored the bleached blonde boy her sister was enamored with and sat down. "Do you guys mind if I join you?"

"No, go ahead. Sit, why don't you?" Angel muttered without lifting his head. He did not want to talk to her. He didn't want to have to look at her when she knew that he was at the verge of giving up. He couldn't face someone who knew how close he was to not caring.

"Thanks." She ignored the blatant sarcasm and opened her lunch bag pulling out an apple. "The others are acting all odd today. Apparently this is today's the anniversary of when they started to sit together."

She shrugged at Spike's laughter. He couldn't help it trying to imagine what they did to celebrate it. Rolling her eyes at him, Buffy started to eat her apple watching as Angel continued to sit with his head against the table.

"What do they do?" Gunn asked her. As amusing as it was to watch her stare at Angel, he was curious.

"They bring each other cupcakes and granola bars." Buffy said calmly trying to hold back her smile when she remembered how Willow had attempted to explain the significance of each. "They don't eat the granola bars though. Just the cupcakes."

"Oh." Gunn didn't understand but didn't question her further.

Awkward silence fell upon the five of them as they sat at the picnic table under the tree. Buffy slowly ate at her apple. Angel kept his head down. Spike watched the two thoroughly entertained. Gunn tried to picture what Fred looked like eating a cupcake. And Faith thought about a way to make the entire thing less awkward without making things more awkward. She gave up.

"So, what's up between you two?"

Angel and Buffy both looked at her, irritated expressions covering their faces. "Nothing."

"Whoa! No need for the both of you to snap at me." Faith looked at her twin quizzically, wondering what had been going on the past few days. She knew Buffy hadn't been patrolling, which was extremely unusual and Buffy had just been quieter overall. Quieter as in she hadn't been telling Faith anything private.

"Nothing is going on between us." Buffy clarified, trying to tell her twin to drop it with her eyes. Unfortunately, Faith didn't pick up on subtle messages too well.

"I know something's going on. I'm not blind." Faith hit the table to emphasize her point. "For the first month or so, Angel can't keep his eyes off of you and you clearly enjoy the attention despite pretending not to notice. But now, he won't even look at you and you stop ignoring him and come to talk to him. Something is going on."

"Nothing's going on." Angel persisted, ignoring the doubtful looks on the faces surrounding. He was not going to tell his friends that Buffy was the Slayer and Faith obviously didn't know.

Or so he thought. That idea, held by both him and Buffy was rudely smashed apart when Faith spoke up again. "Is it Slayer only business?"

Shocked at her sister's comment, Buffy quickly checked out the expressions of Spike and Gunn, only to see that they didn't look surprised. Angel had hinted that his friends knew but she doubted that he'd told them about her. It seemed that maybe he had.

For his part, Angel couldn't talk. He could see that all three of them knew that both he and Buffy were Slayers. He just couldn't figure out how.

"Something wrong?" Gunn asked, his voice thick with irony. "Or did you both think we'd never find out?"

"How?" It was an effort for Buffy to get even the one syllable out.

Faith rolled her eyes at her sister. "What kind of person would stalk you until you got home at three in the morning? Only a Slayer."

"I'm not stalking her." Angel snapped, wondering how much his three so-called friends knew.

Raising his eyebrow at Angel again, Spike gave him a look. "Angel, I've seen the way you stare at her window."

"What?" Buffy yelped as Faith smacked Spike on the arm. "When did you see that?"

"And you don't even deny it." Spike chuckled as he dodged as second blow from Faith, who looked pleadingly at her sister.

"He was only over late once, when Mom was out of town and we happened to see that you and Angel came back really late and I thought it'd be okay because well, you weren't there and..."

"And that's how we found out." Spike finished. "It wasn't that hard. I know Angel's the Slayer, Faith knows Buffy's the Slayer. We just put two and two together and found out you were both Slayers. Now we've just been trying to get you to admit you two actually like each other even if you don't know that you do."

Gunn stared at Spike trying to piece together the logic of his friend's statement. It was impossible. "Man, that makes no sense."

"Who dropped the Slayer information first?" Angel asked softly, a dangerous edge to his voice. He'd told Spike and Gunn in the strictest of confidence, only because they'd demanded to know. Since he was living with Spike it was inevitable that he should find out and what Spike was told, Gunn would also have to be told.

Spike and Faith looked at each other for a moment before Spike, meekly, raised his hand a little. "I didn't mean to, it was just the shock of seeing you staring at some girl's window! I just accidentally asked why you weren't out patrolling and Faith heard me and asked me if you were the Slayer. I mean you can't exactly blame me for being shocked. I knew you liked Blondie over here, but staring at her while she changed..."

His voice trailed off as both Buffy and Angel glared at him. "I don't change in front of the window. He just watches until I go to bed."

Angel winced slightly. He wasn't sure if that made him sound better or worse. And she was lying.

"Well, that's not the point." Faith spoke up again. "The point is we know you guys are the Slayers and we want to know what's wrong."

Buffy and Angel exchanged a glance, the first time they'd really looked at each other in during the conversation. Angel looked away. "It's nothing. Don't worry."

He stood up and walked away. The remainder of the group just watched.

-

Wesley exchanged a glance with Giles again before looking back at the two teenagers sulking before them. Taking an extraordinary risk, he and Giles had allowed both of the Slayers to take almost a week off from training and only asking for quick sweeps through the cemeteries of Sunnydale rather than the normal patrol. Somehow, their kindness didn't seem to be appreciated in the Slayers. Both had barely said a word since walking into the library at the hour that their Watchers had requested to see them. Instead they just sat their ignoring each other and the two older men.

Again, Wesley looked back at Giles. Despite the fact that Wesley had had a Slayer for longer, Giles was the senior Watcher on the Watcher's Council. At the moment, Wesley was hoping Giles would use that seniority and speak up first. It was odd how the Council never trained its members in how to deal with angry teens as every Slayer tended to be an angry teen.

Giles fiddled with his glasses again, cleaning them for the third time in since Buffy and Angel slumped into the library five minutes ago. He wasn't quite sure of what to do. Surly, Wesley who'd had Angel as a Slayer for over a year now would know what to do. Or so he hoped.

Buffy just sat examining her nails, waiting for one of the men in the room to break the silence. She didn't care about what was going on, she kept telling herself. She hadn't asked for this, her predecessor wasn't even dead. She just wanted a normal life with her wacky twin and strange new friends. Nothing that involved some grand complicated destiny with prophecies was necessary in her life right now. She was here because it was her duty.

Staring blankly, seeing nothing, Angel went over the conversation from lunch in his head for the thousandth time that day. His friends knew Buffy was the Slayer. They knew he watched her. (It wasn't really stalking, he told himself again.) Now, he just needed a way to figure out how to deal with all these new things. He needed to figure out why he felt that he had to tell Buffy all his deepest darkest secrets.

The clock ticked slowly as another five minutes crept by while the four of them sat silently. Finally, Giles decided that this had gone on long enough. "We called you two here for a reason. We've more fully researched the prophecy we found just before that attack and we think we understand what it says and what you need to do."

He noticed that this got a slight reaction out of the Slayers, as they both turned their gazes upon him. "It starts out saying that 'in the dark of the day when all are out the sweeper will come over all and all will not stand alone.' Now we are not quite sure what the sweeper is, but we think that perhaps that's not something we need to worry about anymore. However, we do believe that the all in this statement refers to both of the Slayers. So that means that it was prophesized that there would be more than one Slayer. And then it talks about 'messages of clouds,' which we think refers to the wind and is saying that evil is getting more powerful, and may perhaps become strong enough to walk in the light. Then the prophecy talks about how the Slayers will fight against evil. Now in the prophecy it uses terms like Sun, light, and dark, which we are quite sure are references to good and evil. Now, we're also pretty sure that it talks about a child or something of the sort that needs to be sacrificed for the world to end, but we're still trying to work on that."

Both Slayers stared blankly at him after his explanation. Finally Buffy spoke up. "You think you understand what it says and that's all you can tell us? Gee, that makes me sound much better. 'We think we know what we're talking about but we still have to research it.' Do you have any idea what we're supposed to do"  
The Watchers exchanged a glace at her frustrated outburst. "We think that you have to save this prophesized child."

Rolling her eyes at her Watcher's vagueness, Buffy asked, "And do you have idea who this child is?"

Silence met her question. Giles took his glasses off again to clean them, "It gets a little confusing at this point. This is what we're still researching but it either translates to the child of the Slayers or the child with the Slayers or something along those lines. It's rather unclear."

"We don't have a child, so you can take that one out." Angel spoke coldly. He glared at the two men standing in front of him.

"Yes, well," Wesley stuttered for a moment, "We know that. It doesn't matter anyway, since Slayers can't really have children, male or female. But we think it might be someone related to you or something like that."

"Like my sister?" Buffy stared wide-eyed at the Watchers.

She released a sigh of relief as both Giles and Wesley shook their heads. "We considered that but we have reason to believe that Faith would not be considered a child."

"Why not?" If her sister were in any danger because of her, Buffy would never forgive herself. If anything actually happened to her sister, the world would have to watch out as she took revenge.

"Um, because..." Giles turned red as he tried to explain. "We don't think Faith seems...um, well, innocent enough to be considered a child."

Wesley nodded along as Giles struggled to explain why Faith wouldn't be the child in the prophecy. Buffy not understanding what they were hinting at stared confused. "What do you mean not innocent? Faith hasn't done anything wrong."

"It's not that we think she's guilty or anything, we just don't think she's innocent. We really think it does mean the child of two Slayers..." Wesley trailed off as he repeated Giles, struggling to find a better word to explain without being rude while not angering the two teens in front of him. "We don't think she'd be considered pure enough."

Something clicked in Angel's head as he remembered a previous prophecy. "She's probably not a virgin so she can't be a child?'

Flinching at the male Slayer's wording, Giles turned redder. "Yes, something along those lines."

"You two thought about whether or not my sister's had sex?"

-

"I can't believe those two. I cannot believe them." Buffy repeated the statement for the millionth time as she let Angel guide her down the street. After she'd started screeching at both his Watcher and hers, Angel had decided to remove her from the library. She'd come willingly but stubbornly stuck to the same topic.

"They think she's not a virgin. I can't believe it. Why on earth would they think that? I can't believe they would think about it. I can't believe them. I mean I know she's not but I can't believe they'd actually discuss that sort of thing. I cannot believe those two."

Angel dragged her down the street a bit further, struggling to keep himself from snapping at her. He had to admit it was a little unnerving to think that the two Englishmen had been talking about that kind of topic. However, he'd gotten the feeling they'd discussed the probability of him and Buffy having a child too, which was even more disturbing. He wasn't going to point that fact out to Buffy though.

"Where are we going?" Buffy stopped suddenly as she realized they weren't heading to her house or the cemeteries.

"My house." Angel said softly. He didn't look at Buffy. He just started to pull her along again. "We need to talk and I think that this is the only place that will happen without us being attacked or interrupted."

"What about Spike?" Buffy asked.

Angel bit back a grin. "I think he mentioned visiting your house tonight."

He didn't let go of her hand as she tried to pull it back. She kept trying to pull herself free but he didn't let go and it seemed like he might actually be stronger than her.

The house was dark when they got there. Spike's mom worked the night shift at Sunnydale hospital where she was a doctor. He opened the door and let Buffy follow him in. He didn't invite her, unwilling to take a risk even with someone he knew wasn't a vampire. But she didn't ask for an invitation.

The living room he turned a light on in was beautifully furnished. There was no real evidence that two teenage boys lived in the house other than the Playstation2 below the TV. Above the fireplace was a charcoal drawing with words around the edges. Curious, Buffy moved away from Angel to look at it more closely. It was a detailed scene at a beach, with waves and sandcastles all in black and white. The only thing missing was people.

"What do you think?" Angel asked.

"It's beautiful. My mother would kill for something like this in her gallery." Buffy answered honestly. There was something haunting about the picture. It looked like all the people had been there a moment before but just as she looked at it they had disappeared, hiding from her eyes. She tilted her head trying to read the words, which seemed to form a poem. But a signature caught her eye before she could finish. 'Angel O'Connor.'

"You drew this?' Buffy turned to him in disbelief.

His dark brown eyes withdrawn, Angel shrugged his broad shoulders. "Yeah. Spike wrote the poem that's on the edges."

"You draw and Spike writes poetry?" She tried to keep the amazement out of her voice, but Buffy had a feeling she was failing to.

"Yeah," even without turning her head Buffy could tell he was smiling. "That's what he's always scribbling in his little notebook."

"Oh, Faith was wondering what that was about. Is he any good?" She'd be able to tell if she could read the writing but the drawing itself kept her captivated.

"Um, well, we called him William the Bloody Bad Poet for awhile, but occasionally he turns out something half decent or better. That was one of his best." He watched as she turned around to stare at him. He shrugged. "Most of the stuff he writes is actually quite sappy. He's really big into having some guy fall in love with this perfect girl. The stuff he writes about other stuff is usually better."

"And do you think you're a good artist?" She continued to stare unblinkingly.

He shrugged his broad shoulders again. "I don't know. What do you think?"

She turned back to the large drawing. Again she had to blink and make sure there really weren't any people on that lonely beach. "I think you're an amazing artist."

-

The two Slayers sat in the kitchen both awkwardly pretending to eat the chips and salsa Angel had pulled out for them to munch on. The easiness they'd almost reached in the living room was gone and in its place was a stumbling stutter that refused to disappear. They'd tried talking about sports something neither of them was into, TV, which Angel didn't watch, movies that Buffy hadn't seen, and music they couldn't quite agree on, before returning to the silence.

For all of his bringing Buffy to his home, Angel could make himself talk to her about what they needed to talk to. It was too hard, too new, and far too confusing. The prophecy had mentioned a child of the Slayers. So, yes, that meant there were supposed to be two Slayers, but a child? That was a little hard to wrap one's mind around, especially since they were only eighteen. Although, had some of his most secret dreams been able to come true, it wouldn't have been hard to believe a child of the Slayers would be born. He quickly locked that thought back to its little cage in his mind.

Buffy started to fidget in the silence. She looked at Angel whose dark brown eyes seemed distant and then looked away. Sighing loudly she asked, "Are we ever going to actually talk about whatever you brought me over here for?"

She looked back at him again, wondering if what a child of his and hers could look like. It didn't take much effort to picture a pretty little girl with blonde hair and brown eyes...or dark brown hair and green eyes...or well any combination of either of them. She shook her head, annoyed that she could think like that at this kind of time. "Well?'

He struggled not to scowl at the snappish tone in her voice. "I guess so. I mean we have to. There's this prophecy that says we'll have a kid or there will be a kid with us and we need to know what to do."

She shrugged. "Not have kids. Not that it matters."

He flinched at the bitterness in her voice. "What do you mean?"

"Slayers can't have children. Did you miss that memo? You can't have kids. I can't have kids. So there will be no children from either of us. The prophecy is wrong."

"And if it isn't?' He knew Slayers couldn't have children but then again, technically vampires weren't supposed to exist and superpowers like those of the Slayers were just myths.

"Then we just don't have sex." She muttered, remembering that her Watcher and his had actually discussed the sex lives of teenagers. It caused her to shudder.

He saw her shiver as she spoke of them sleeping together and for some reason he felt something inside him tighten uncomfortably. It was like someone unkindly grabbed his heart and tried to smash it. Biting his lip, he looked at the blue salsa bowl. "Fine how 'bout we make it even simpler and just don't ever do anything that could possibly lead to us being together as a couple?"

Her head snapped up at his sarcastic tone. It hurt. She'd thought that maybe, despite everything...She shook her head to get the smallest of hopeful thoughts out of her head. "It's probably for the best. Two Slayers dating, it'd just lead to trouble."

"Yeah."

Silence descended on the kitchen again as they both thought over what they'd just agreed to.

"We'll still patrol together and be friends, right?" Buffy asked, silently damning that little optimistic thought that was screaming at her in her head.

He nodded, wondering if it would be okay for him to keep watching her, silently telling himself that it wouldn't hurt anybody.

"Good." She was quiet again for a moment. "I guess we can tell Giles and Wesley that we don't need to worry about that prophecy anymore."

-

Again, I appreciate/love/want reviews. That's all I have to say now.  
-Kastia 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Giving In

Disclaimer: Still not mine in any way, shape, or form. They still belong to others with far more genius and money than me.

AN: Um, so this took a while and I'm not completely happy with it, but it gets me to where I need to be. And thanks to people who reviewed. I encourage everyone (including myself) to review. We should all do that more often. So once again, my thanks.

-Chapter 4-  
"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you wanted to be more than just friends?" Angel teased Buffy as she pushed herself up from where she'd fallen on top of him.

"Ha ha ha." Buffy muttered as she brushed herself off. She knew that he couldn't see her blush in the dark but still turned her head away and looked around for the demon that had attacked them. "You wish."

Damn right I do, he thought privately, but instead just smirked at her. "No, I think you wish. Who ended up on top of whom here?'

She rolled her eyes at him. "Who decided it was a brilliant idea to take a stroll through the graveyard with only a stake?"

"Who forgot almost forgot to bring even a stake?" Angel asked pointedly. He grinned as he waited for her retort.

"Who almost didn't sense the fact there was a demon around?" She snapped back. This was the only point she had that she could regularly bring up against him that he couldn't respond to. Her 'spidey-sense' as she had dubbed her ability to sense vampires and other supernatural beings was much stronger than his. Of course, he had a much better fighting technique but she was convinced that was because he'd been a Slayer longer. That and he was a good deal more dedicated to training regularly with Wesley. She and Giles sometimes had little tiffs over her training methods- or lack thereof.

"Well, if you knew he was there, why didn't you get out of his way before he kicked you?" Angel inquired, happy to find something that would shut her up for once.

Or not. "How was I supposed to know he was going to move that fast? Huh? Answer that one. And..."

"You're bleeding."

"What?" Buffy looked down at he arm, which had gotten in between her and the demon's foot. There was a scratch going from her elbow to her wrist. "Oh. So are you."

He reached his hand up to where she was pointing. She was right, there was a small scratch on his forehead, probably from when he'd hit the ground with her on top. "It'll heal. It's not that bad."

"Are you sure?"

He gave her a look. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure Spike gets worse injuries when he plays with your sister."

Her jaw dropped at his comment and for once she found herself completely unable to respond to his comment.

----

"Patrol was successful then?" Giles looked over from the circulation desk as the two Slayers walked in and sat down at the wooden table.

"Sort of." Buffy answered. "We got four vamps but one demon got away."

"Oh really, could you describe it?" Giles set the books he was entering into the computer system down and walked over to the table.

"Didn't get a really good glance, sort of got kicked and knocked over." Buffy admitted. She looked toward Angel, "Did you get a look at it?"

He shook his head, wondering if she'd get mad at him if he spoke his thought. Biting his lip, he decided that just for fun he'd speak up. "Nope, in case you forgot you were on top of me. While I don't mind being under you, it doesn't exactly give a good view of demons."

He could see the outrage in her green eyes, but she couldn't say anything with Giles standing right there cleaning his glasses.

"So, neither of you actually know what this demon looks like?" Giles asked tiredly as he placed his glasses back on. He had a feeling he'd missed something in their banter but he really couldn't care. Both he and Wesley were still trying to translate the prophecy that their Slayers insisted was never going to come true. The difference was now they weren't telling their Slayers about it so Giles was dragging books back and forth from the school to the museum at odd hours. It was getting tiresome and all the Slayers could offer was knowledge of demon that hadn't seen.

The only thing he could be thankful of was that the two Slayers seemed to be getting along better than ever. Whatever they had discussed before telling their Watchers not to worry about the prophecy had created a sense of ease around them. Now, Giles thought, if only it would lead to Buffy being more willing to do her training.

----

"So, are you going?"

"What?"

"Are you going?"

Buffy turned away from her closet to glare at her exasperating sister. "I don't know, okay?"

"Why not?" Faith watched as her sister rolled her eyes and turned back to digging through her cramped closet. "You could just get Angel to take you. It's not like he'd say no."

"Angel and I are just friends. I told you that...and I told you we'd spoken about it and decided that we could never be more than friends." Buffy took a deep breath as she tried to find the boots she'd bought the week before. "There's no point in him taking me."

"You could go as friends." Faith pointed out, sensible for once in her life. "Unless you don't think you could go as 'just friends' because you still like him."

She watched as the Slayer's body stiffened at her words. Buffy turned away from the closet again, her eyes a sharp green as she glared at Faith. "It doesn't matter whether or not I like him. We're just friends."

Understanding the unspoken order to leave, Faith stood up. "Keep telling yourself that."

----

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to." Angel said through gritted teeth. "Do I have to give you a reason?'

"You could take her as a friend. Isn't that what you two are supposed to be?" Spike watched his friend pace the living room aimlessly. "For pity's sake, Angel, it's the Holiday Formal, Buffy's going to want to go."

"Then she can get a date." His jaw was starting to hurt because he'd stood there with it clenched for so long.

"And do you think you could watch her dance with some other guy for an entire evening?" Spike inquired, failing to keep an accusing tone out of his voice.

Sighing, Angel turned to his blond friend. "Why do you think I'm not going?"

Stumped for a moment, Spike glared at Angel. "Do you really think she's just going to be able to get a date?"

"What do you mean?" Angel bit his lip, forcing himself to think rationally about the idea of Buffy being with someone else. "Who wouldn't want to ask her?"

"Well, you for starters, and it's pretty clear she likes you." Spike answered promptly. If it weren't for the fact that Faith had convinced him to do this... "She's not exactly little Miss I-Wanna-Go-Out-With-Anyone. She clearly has standards and frankly I don't think there are a lot of guys who wanna hafta to deal with that. And then you add the fact that half the time she's scary and you get a lot of guys who wouldn't want to ask her."

'What do you mean she's scary?"

"She gets like you do." Spike waved his hands around uselessly attempting to explain what he meant. "All Slayer-y and stuff. And even more, most of the school thinks you have some strange obsession about her. Darla made sure of that."

"I'm not obsessed with Buffy." Angel ground out, reminding himself that Spike thought he was being helpful.

"You still watch her window, don't you?" Spike didn't wait for an answer, seeing it in the way Angel avoided his glance. "Whatever you two agreed upon, forget it. You like her, she likes you, it doesn't really add up to much else. Just ask her to the bloody dance."

----

"So..." Angel grimaced as he and Buffy walked through the graveyard.

"Yeah?" Buffy turned to him trying to suppress anything that resembled hope in her voice. It was the third time he'd started to say something and she secretly had her fingers crossed that he was planning on asking her something.

"It's a nice night out." Angel winced inwardly at the fact he'd chickened out for the third time. When he spoke to Spike the entire thing seemed easy but face-to-face, asking Buffy to the Winter Formal was a lot more difficult.

"Yeah." Buffy shivered a little in the cool air. While Sunnydale never got cold, the nights did get a little nippy. "It's getting chilly out. Sort of like it does every December."

"You're cold."

"You can take it." Buffy didn't see any point in trying to be nice to him. Even if she liked him half as much as her sister thought she did, there was no reason to act friendly to some guy who wouldn't even ask her to a stupid dance.

"No, I mean you look cold." He shrugged off his leather jacket and placed it around her shoulders, wondering why she thought a tank top was appropriate in the middle of December, even if California.

Startled by his actions, Buffy was silent for a moment before she remembered her manners. "It's a little big on me...but thanks."

She tightened the black leather coat around her body, trying to subtly breathe in his scent. The warm, overwhelming feeling of comfort slightly intoxicated her. Angel walked beside her, pretending not to feel proud as he watched her hug his jacket closer to her.

"So..." He flinched as the words left his mouth again.

Buffy grimaced as they started again. "I can give you your jacket back tomorrow."

Stopping, Angel looked down at her. She was so little and his jacket engulfed her. "Nah, it looks better on you."

Buffy looked up at him confused. A very annoying mental argument was taking place in her head as one side of her told her she was a fool to get this close to him and another side angrily told the other one to shut up. "Thanks, I think."

"DoyouwanttogototheWinterFormalwithme?" Angel spat the question out in one breath, wondering why he chose this one time to follow Spike's advice.

"What?" It sounded like he'd said what she hoped he'd said, but it was hard to tell.

"Do you want to go to the Winter Formal with me? As friends." Angel quickly tacked on, mentally deciding that this was somehow all Spike's fault.

The "as friends" part hurt a little, even though she knew that was a vital part of their relationship. The 'we're just friends and that's all we can ever be' was a never-ending litany in her head that kept her sane when she wondering why he didn't seem to want to pursue a relationship with her. She knew he was attracted to her, or she thought she knew that, after all, he didn't mind watching her at night.

"Um, do you?" Angel asked again after her silence started to make him nervous. This was really a bad idea.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Buffy smiled at him, half-heartedly. "It'll be fun and going with you takes off all the pressure of finding a date."

"Yeah." Angel suppressed a sigh as they continued to patrol.

----

Awkward didn't come close to describing the current situation. Buffy glanced down at Angel uneasily. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He shifted a little, very glad that she was so little. "I still don't see why we couldn't have taken another car."

"Because, Angel, no one else has a car we can take." Spike rolled his eyes as he held Faith close to him. He felt a little bad since Angel was the one who had to have someone on his lap but Buffy was the smallest of all the girls so it only made sense. "For someone as smart as you Liam, you sure do ask dumb questions."

"Shut up, William." Angel snarled trying to breathe around Buffy's hair, which smelt wonderful but didn't make it easy to stay alive.

"Will the both of you shut up?" Gunn snapped as he turned into the school parking lot. "Man, one would think we were driving across the country rather than barely half a mile. Get out, we're here."

Carefully opening the car door, Buffy stepped out, straightening her dress as she stood up. She turned around to see Angel unfold himself from his cramped position in the car. He looked gorgeous in his black blazer; much more polished than Spike who was wearing the same leather jacket he wore everyday and more sophisticated than Gunn in his blue suit. Her breath caught as he smiled at her and offered her his arm.

Angel suppressed a shiver as Buffy delicately placed her hand on his arm, trying not to take advantage of the view he had of her bosom in her white gown. The color contrasted beautifully against her golden tan skin. Her was swept elegantly, emphasizing her poised head. As they walked behind Spike and Faith with Gunn and his date trailing behind, Angel couldn't help but feel proud of walking the most beautiful girl in the world into the school gym.

----

"Ask her to dance." Spike hissed out of the corner of his mouth as Faith dragged him onto the dance floor. Gunn had already disappeared into the crowd with his date, which meant that Buffy and Angel would be the only ones in the group who weren't at least pretending to have fun.

Buffy stared at the crowd of teens swaying to the music. She could see Xander dancing goofily around Fred, who was awkwardly inching her way of the dance floor. Jesse and Willow were laughing at their friends. She wished she could walk over and join them but as Angel's date she couldn't just abandon him, even if he didn't want to do anything with her.

Doing his best to ignore Spike's order, Angel shifted from his weight trying to find a way to stand without being uncomfortable. After half an hour of just standing though, it was getting a little difficult. Maybe, just maybe, if he danced it would let his muscles loosen a little and he could stand for the rest of the evening. He looked down to Buffy who was unconsciously shifting from leg to leg, as her shoes grew more uncomfortable. She was staring in the direction of her friends. He turned to see Xander the class clown doing some kind of hop step around Fred. Angel hid a smirk as he remembered how Gunn was still slightly entranced by the skinny brunette who had smacked him in third grade when he'd called her a dork. As Xander pretended to dance with her, she laughed and continued to do so even after he tripped and nearly fell on his face. A small snort next to him, reminded Angel that Buffy was his date for the evening. Taking a deep breath, he asked her to dance.

Stunned that he finally spoke to her, Buffy looked at the tall dark Slayer before nodding. Carefully he led her into the throng of teens moving to the heavy bass of the song. Joining the crowd around them, they danced to the music. As was usual in such a large group moving erratically, the two were occasionally pushed closer together than the way the started, however, neither did anything to move away.

Angel relaxed as he felt Buffy lay her head against him, her hands draped loosely around his shoulders. He tightened his grip slightly, causing her to move even closer to him, a feeling that caused him to relax even further.

"Don't you two make a cute couple?"

The two Slayers pulled apart at the simpering sarcasm. Darla stood glaring at them, her blue eyes cold. She looked at Buffy and smirked. "I see you're moving down, Angel. What a pity, we could have been great."

"You had your chance Darla, and if my memory serves me you broke up with me." Angel's voice was low.

Smirking at the other blonde, Buffy moved a little closer to Angel, tightening her arms around his shoulders. She didn't say anything but neither did she miss Darla's slight snarl.

"Look bitch, you think that just because you're able to get him to one dance on time that you're special. Trust me, you're not. Just wait, pretty soon he'll be ditching you to go off and do whatever bullshit he does. And then you'll learn why the Trio is just a bunch of sad, lonely, single guys." She glared at Buffy. "Trust me."

"See over there," Buffy pointed over to another part of the gym where she could see her twin and Spike making out on the dance floor. "I think that at least one member of the so-called Trio is no longer single. And really, just because you can't maintain a guys interest for longer than the thirty seconds it takes for them to realize you're an idiot doesn't mean that the rest of the female population can't. Or more specifically, it doesn't mean that I can't."

Turning away from Darla, Buffy leaned against Angel again, wondering if she'd said too much.

"You bitch." Darla turned to Angel with a seductive smile. "When you're tired of playing with the children, come join the big girls again."

Ignoring Darla, Angel continued to sway to the song, inwardly singing at Buffy's statement. If only he could believe that her quick defense meant anything.

----

"You and Buffy looked pretty cozy at the dance last night." Spike commented as Angel walked into the kitchen. "You had a good time with Blondie."

"Shut-up, Spike." Angel yanked open the fridge to pull out the orange juice.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you two were a cute couple who'd been dating the past couple of months." Spike added on as he watched his friend clench his jaw.

"Buffy and I are just friends." His brown eyes darkening with warning, Angel glared at the blond.

"Yeah, you're just friends." Spike snorted as he recalled the expression on Angel's face any time he saw Buffy.

"What do you mean by that?" Angel snapped, angry at Spike's insinuations.

Spike rolled his eyes, trying to find a way to convince his friend. "You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll both be in love till it kills you both."

"I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH BUFFY!" The shout echoed throughout the house.

"LIAM O'CONNOR!" Both boys winced at the sound of Spike's mother's voice. She glared at Angel as she entered the kitchen. "What have I told you about yelling in this house?"

"Sorry, Laura, I won't do it again." Angel said softly, ignoring Spike's snort.

"And William, dear," his mother's voice caused Spike to shrink down in his seat. "What have I told you about teasing Liam?"

"Not to do it." Spike said, his tone falling short of the unrepentant one he was aiming for.

Smiling tightly at the two teenagers, Dr. Laura Windsor sat down at the breakfast table. "So what are your plans for today?"

"Um, I think we're going to meet up with some of the others at the mall." Glancing briefly at Angel, Spike continued, "Buffy and Faith want to get a gift for their mother's birthday."

"If you're going out, why don't you take your sister?"

"Mum!" Spike yelped, his voice not alone as a brown haired girl ran into the kitchen protesting.

"Yes," her voice picking up its earlier chill, Laura looked down at her children.  
"Nothing," muttered Spike.

Turning away from the kitchen, Laura hoped that with all the kids gone from the house she'd finally be able to get some sleep after her night in working in the emergency room. "Don't forget to be back before dark."

Angel and Spike rolled their eyes at the statement, causing the young brunette to open her mouth, only to find Spike's hand over it. "Don't you dare say a word Kathy."

----

"I can't believe my mum made me take her." Spike whined to Faith as he pulled her away from the rest of the group. "I mean, she my little sister, why should I take her shopping?"

Glancing back to where Angel and Buffy were awkwardly listening to Kathy's chatter, Faith shrugged, "I go shopping with my sis all the time."

"Yeah, but you're a girl and you're twins." Spike insisted. "It's different. Kathy's just a baby."

"She's thirteen. You're seventeen. She's not a baby." Gunn spoke up as he neared Spike and Faith. "If she were a year or two older and not your sister, I'd date her."

Gunn stepped back as Spike turned to glare at him. "Or not."

----

"So, what are you looking for again?" Kathy asked Buffy. She liked the blonde girl a lot and completely agreed with her brother that Angel was in love with her.

Shrugging Buffy looked away from the shoes she was gazing at, "I don't know yet. Just something motherly and stuff. My mom says she doesn't want anything for her birthday and would rather just forget the day but I know if I don't get her anything she'll flip."

"Somehow I don't picture Joyce as the flipping type," Xander said as he caught the end of Buffy's statement. "I'd picture her more like the handstand kind. Hey, that's not nice."

Buffy giggled as she watched Kathy stick her tongue out at Xander again. "What do you recommend?"

"I don't know. I always get my mum something related to her work. This one year, I got her an entire set of fridge magnets that had to do with being a doctor. There was one that was shaped like a stethoscope and one like a doctor's coat and all sorts of stuff like that." Kathy shrugged and pointed to another pair of shoes in the window. "I like those ones but I don't like the color."

"Hm, yeah, the bright yellow doesn't quite seem useful. But I bet we could find an outfit for them." Buffy agreed.

Leaning over to look at the strappy sandals the two were looking at, Angel frowned. "So, the scary price tag doesn't bother you."

Both girls looked at him. Rolling her eyes, Kathy smiled, "Angel, you need to lean something about shopping. If you find an awesome pair of shoes, you'll eventually find something to wear with it."

When he looked at Buffy to confirm this, she only nodded firmly before looking away. Despite Spike's complaints she was extremely happy that Kathy had come along. She could see that Kathy adored Angel and had no problems in encouraging the younger girl to stay around them. It made things slightly less stressful because every time Angel was close to her she wanted to wrap her arms around him like she'd done the previous night.

"Hey, B!" Turning away from her thoughts, Buffy looked over to her twin. Seeing she had her sister's attention, Faith gestured to something in the store in front of her, "What about this?"

The object was displayed in the center of the store's display window, turning slowly as the group edged around closer.

"It looks like the one Grandma used to wear." Buffy said.

Grinning, Faith nodded. "I bet if we pooled our money together we could get it."

"Like, who would wear that piece of trash?"

As a whole, the nine teens crowded in front of the display of the delicate rose necklace turned to see Cordelia and Darla standing next to them.

"Cordy, why do you even bother to ask this group? Darla rolled her eyes. "C'mon, I want to get to CachŽ and show you the dress I put on reserve."

Dragging the taller brunette with her, Darla stalked off in the direction of the dress store.

"Okay, ignoring the bitch squad, do you really think Mom would like it?" Faith asked Buffy.

"Remember how upset she was when Celia's mom told her that their dog accidentally bit it because Celia sort of put it around his neck?" The twins exchanged a grin, remembering how it had originally been Buffy's idea to make the dog prettier with the necklace and how Faith had actually been the one to take the item and give it to Celia who had placed it around her pet's neck. "Oh yeah,I think she'll like it."

Um, Please Review.

-Kastia 


End file.
